These are some of the nation’s favourite Scots words.
And the Scots Language Society has now launched a new poll and competition to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
A spokesperson said: “Sometimes people don’t realise just how many Scots words they or their family or friends use. Do you naturally talk of “gaun hame tae the hoose” rather than “going home to the house”? Do you remember your granny or grandad “maskin the tea ben the scullery” rather than “brewing the tea in the kitchen”? Are you “scunnert wi a crabbit heid-bummer o a boss ye cannae thole” rather than “fed up with a bad-tempered, over-officious boss you can’t stand”? Then the Scots Leid Associe or Scots Language Society wants to hear from you.’
And this year they are asking people to:
n Reveal their top ten favourite Scots words that they and their family and friends use.
n Use those ten words in a short story (of no more than 500 words) on any subject. This short form of writing is often called flash fiction.
The spokesperson added: “You don’t have to be an expert and we encourage people who have never tried writing in Scots before but always fancied it to have a wee go!
“As with all languages, there is a variety of different ways of speaking and spelling Scots so we don’t want to be over-prescriptive. If you’re not sure about any of your words, you can look them up in Dictionaries of the Scots Language Online: https://dsl.ac.uk.”
Examples of flash fiction have also been posted on their website at
www.lallans.co.uk for inspiration.
The society will collate the words and publish a list of the top 50 favourites in June.
Competition winners will also be announced that month and will win a variety of prizes, including a hardback copy of the Concise Scots Dictionary.
Entrants must be aged over 16 and send their stories and words to [email protected] by noon on May 28.
